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Kari Richards — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Twitter user name: RafteCompany

Rafte & Company is staying on top of the trends and industry directions to keep you informed. Some of the subjects we are tracking in include: Law Firm Management; Ad Agency Management; Accounting Firm Management; Document and Email Management; Governance, Risk & Compliance; Office Productivity; Business Process Efficiencies; Business Continuity; Microsoft Upgrade Availability; Legal Technology Updates; Time and Billing Trends; Rafte Event Notices and more...

6-Jul-09 12:00 PM

The Top Five Compelling Reasons Your Law Firm or Corporate Legal Department Can Benefit from Using Microsoft Office 2007

Kari Richards — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT

With a lot of the buzz about Microsoft Office 2007, and its primary applications: Word 2007, Outlook 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007; you may be wondering if it’s worth the upgrade. To determine if Office 2007 is right for your firm or department, we worked first-hand with several legal administrators and attorneys. Presented here are the top five compelling reasons your firm or department can benefit from Office 2007.

	The New User Interface
Office 2007 is unlike any Microsoft upgrade since Windows 95 was released because the change is revolutionary -- not evolutionary. The most impactful change in Office 2007 is the new interface. The familiar menus, File, Edit, View, etc. no longer exist. The menus have been replaced with "the Ribbon", which is a set of tabs located across the top of the screen organized by function. Each tab is divided into groups of related task-oriented commands. Key features are now at your fingertips. In other words, features that were previously very difficult to locate in older versions of Office applications, are now very easy to find or "discover" within the new Ribbon. For example; symbols, line numbering and paragraph spacing in Word (once buried deep in menus and dialog boxes) are now clearly displayed at the top of your screen on the Ribbon. Contextual tabs are another ingenious feature in Office 2007. The tabs only appear in the Ribbon when needed. For example, when you click in a Table, the Table Tools tab appears; click outside of the table and the contextual tabs disappear.
	Faster, Better, Easier: Creating and Editing Documents in a Flash!
Documents can now be created and edited with a more professional look, faster and easier than ever before. Through the use of new Office 2007 templates, Quick Parts and other Building Blocks, elegant documents can be created in as little as three clicks. Live Preview, Galleries, Themes and Quick Styles make it possible to format and edit a document in a matter of mere seconds.
	The New File Format
Another feature that provides value in Office 2007's is new file format. The new file format is based on XML, will require a four-letter file extension (i.e. .docx instead of .doc), and is not backwards compatible. Microsoft has given us a more robust, feature-rich, secure file format that will greatly benefit law firms, corporate legal departments, and professional service firms.
Some of the features of the new file format include the ability to:
Create documents that are less prone to file corruption. Reduce file size significantly. Recover content from corrupt documents (not available in previous versions of Office). Content Management - The capability to update and replace content in all Office 2007 documents in a repository. For example, the same logo may be used in thousands of documents and can quickly be replaced in all XML documents.
	Graphics
While SmartArt is one of the most obvious and outstanding new additions to Microsoft's graphics capabilities, there are other great tools that may be of more interest to you. In PowerPoint, the ability to insert multiple photos at one time, using the Photo Album tool, is one those great features. The Photo Album tool; capable of formatting, assigning placement (i.e., fit one photo per slide or select up to four photos per slide), and applying captions to multiple photos all at once, can save hours of work. Another efficiency tool found throughout Office 2007 is the Compress Pictures feature. The ability to compress all pictures in a document with only a few clicks results in smaller file sizes, which is especially useful for files and presentations that are graphics-heavy. The Selection and Visibility pane is another great new graphics feature that presents the user with a list of all the objects in a document. The task pane allows the user to quickly select and group multiple graphics; as well as show, hide and arrange objects -- making it much easier to work with layered objects.
	. . . And All the Little Things
It is all the little things that add up to huge improvements in efficiency and ease-of-use for Office 2007. Through the use of the new templates, Quick Parts and other Building Blocks, elegant documents can be created in as little as three clicks. Live Preview, Galleries, Themes and Quick Styles make it possible to format and edit a document in a matter of mere seconds. Some of our favorite new features such as the PDF converter, Global Spelling Options, Contextual Spelling, Mini Toolbar, customizable Status Bar and Zoom slider can be found throughout Office 2007. In Word, the Document Comparison features, new Table Styles, and improved Track Changes make a big impact on usability; while the new Presenter View, Custom Layouts and slide Reset button are a sigh of relief and a helping hand in PowerPoint. Excel's new features such as the Page Layout view, new Conditional Formatting options and additional Formulas allow for data to be manipulated and understood within a single click or two. And last but not least the Calendar Overlay feature, new To-Do Bar and color category options make managing your schedule so much faster and easier in Outlook. These features may not sound like much written here on this page, however once you begin to use Office 2007 it will not take long before you begin to see the benefits.
The bottomline
Is it worth the upgrade? We say yes. The Office 2007 improvements boil down to a few simple factors:
An overall improvement to the interface and some great new tools result in greater efficiencies and a higher quality of work product. Processes that often took hours to accomplish in previous versions of Office and resulted in only mediocre documents, now only take a few mouse clicks and result in professional, eye-catching documents. And while it’s true that change is often difficult, and users may experience somewhat of a learning curve, we at Rafte believe the short investment of time is well worth the effort.
To learn more about Office 2007, Office 2007 Training, and other great technology advances that can help your firm or legal department become more efficient - call Rafte & Company at (713) 993-9637.

26-May-09 11:00 AM

Rafte & Company's Partners' Breakfast Roundtable 2008 Recap

Shannon Hampton — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

What a Year - Rafte & Company's Partners' Breakfast Roundtable 2008 Recap

HOUSTON, December 30, 2008 – There is no argument that 2008 has been quite a year… An historical presidential election, volatile oil and gas prices, and destructive weather – just to name a few events that have impacted our business lives.

As we enter into 2009, what is in store for us? Will the trends in the legal profession and business climate affect the way we do business?

We need to strategically prepare our firms and businesses for 2009 and to support your planning sessions, we wanted to provide an Executive Briefing that recaps the Rafte & Company Partner’s Breakfast Roundtable sessions that were held in 2008.

April – 2008: Retaining Women in the Legal Profession

Today’s advancing law firms are embracing women in the workplace. Typically, this translates to a more flexible work environment. So, how are firms going to meet this challenge?

Roundtable Highlights:

Bottom line: Law firms continue to lose bright, capable female attorneys to the corporate legal world. While they would like to retain and promote female attorneys, smaller firms are often constrained both by their legacy compensation plans, and their inability to provide the required flexibility needed by female attorneys.
Even though the percentage of women partners in law firms today is increasing, the ratio of female law firm partners is still substantially less than their male counterparts. The numbers become even more unbalanced when one considers the number of female partners with children versus male partners with children.
The door to partnership in a law firm is closely tied to originations, billings, and collections – not gender. The fact that there are more male than female partners is more closely related to a woman’s choice of balance between work and family life rather than her ability to make partner.
Law firms understand that attorneys, who are working mothers, represent a huge and very viable knowledge base – often relatively untapped. Accordingly, law firms are making a more conscientious decision to hire female attorneys to create a more balanced culture and client/attorney relationship fit. The ultimate challenge in creating this balance will be the firm’s ability to support alternative work arrangements and compensation plans going forward.

July – 2008: The Billable Hour: Is the Era Coming to an End?

Increased hourly rates, increased annual billable quotas, increased staff turnover. What will break first – attorney’s backs or the billable hour?

Roundtable Highlights:

Bottom line: Law firms are hesitant to depart from the billable hour unless their clients demand that their billing structure change. However, change is enviable – especially with business drivers from this current economic period.
Mitigating the risk of “rocking the boat” with a client was the most common reason provided for keeping the billable hour. Law firms know how to manage their business with the billable hour and most clients expect the billable hour. The number one driver between client and firm growth is “personal relationships”. These personal relationships are also driving the need to do business in the comfort zone. If the mix of billing structure and client expectations is met, than the billable hour will stay for a long period of time.
The introduction of an alternative billing structure may be directly related to the internal stresses that the client is experiencing. For several years, corporate legal departments have been under a great deal of pressure to manage and minimize the cost of legal services for the corporation. The Corporate General Counsel is being required to scrutinize these legal costs, and as a result, law firms are being asked to submit reliable case budgets and alternative billing structures.
By being proactive and offering an accurate budget for a case, some litigation practices are seizing this opportunity to differentiate their firms. Referring to years of data, these firms are analyzing the type of case and providing a budget representation.
In firms with less than 200 attorneys, the perception is that no “real legal work” is being outsourced. The types of tasks outsourced are more likely to be in the arena of litigation support-related document production reviews or possibly patent processing documents.
There are some law firms that are choosing to migrate away from litigation. Litigation is being referred to smaller or boutique firms. The primary reason is that litigation is expensive, lower-margin, and longer return. However, the smaller firms are very happy to pick up this work.
Also, clients want the law firm to take a position of shared risk on a case or matter. In many cases, firms are very reticent to share risk as they have difficulty in forecasting what a case will cost the client. More importantly, many firms are unable to access the required historical data from which they would base these projections.

October – 2008: Client Succession – Planning for Tomorrow

How do you successfully transition your client’s trust to another member of the firm? What steps should you take to make sure that your firm’s long-term relationship with the client is not compromised? Just as you plan for the future management succession of your firm, it is equally important to plan for the succession of your valued clients.

Roundtable Highlights:

Bottom line: There was almost a clean 50/50 split of firms that practice a “Team Approach” to client/firm relationship building and those firms that have no client succession plan, allowing the originating attorney to keep and manage the client relationship.
The Team Approach needs to begin at the inception of the client-firm relationship. It is a style of doing business within the firm, and needs to be aligned with the firm’s compensation plan. Traditional client relationship plans that heavily compensate for individual origination do not facilitate the Team Approach to client management.
There was a general consensus that if a Team Approach to client management was non-existent, the risk of losing a client is very high, if the originating attorney leaves the firm.
A few recommendations were made:
- Identify the primary lawyer for each client.
- Determine the backup lawyer, if the primary lawyer becomes ill or leaves the firm.
- If a backup lawyer has not been assigned, assign one.
- Build a “client team” with multiple levels of staff participation.
- Follow up with clients on a regular basis to build a loyal client relationship.

October – 2008: [SPECIAL SESSION - LEGAL TECHNOLOGY ROUNDTABLE] Lessons Learned: Preparing and Recovering from a Hurricane

Hurricane Ike slams into Galveston and Houston on September 13, 2008. Four weeks later Rafte & Company hosted a roundtable among the legal technology thought leaders of Houston to reflect back and consider how they fared with regard to the storm. What the firm prepared? What plans did they put in place that worked brilliantly? What remains a challenge? What can be done now? Are there any new alternatives?

Roundtable Highlights:

Bottom line: The participants survived Hurricane Ike by escaping little to no damage of records and continued business-as-usual by remotely operating from hotels or coffee shops, outside the Greater Houston Area.
Most of the participants agreed that their primary “check list” was comprehensive and surprisingly similar firm-to-firm, and included considerations for people, paper, IT, telecom, mobile collaboration, and office building infrastructure. However, one critical factor was missing from the list: mission-critical business process and data infrastructure mapping, which resulted in poor remote collaboration with key staff.
Who “owns” the responsibility of planning business continuity or DR for the law firm? The consensus was that this was viewed as an administrative and IT task. This presents a dichotomy between the corporate world and the business practices of law firms. While law firm partners focus on practicing law, legal administrators or IT leaders request visibility to business continuity or DR gaps, but these challenges are often put on the backburner to daily tasks because of limited time and resources. Corporations assign business continuity as a key corporate initiative and require an executive to take accountable responsibility. The participants of the roundtable are eager to see the same adoption of business continuity plans from the corporate world in their law firms.
By the very fact that Hurricane Ike was a natural disaster with plenty of warning, did this situation produce a false sense of security? Thanks to the advancement of metrology, we received up to a five-day hurricane watch. But, what if the disaster or business interruption was not a natural disaster? What if it was an unexpected event, like a fire? Would we be as confident that we would experience the same level of success that we did with Hurricane Ike? Well, the response was a bit more concerning. Auto backup and restore of laptop data, scanned and indexed records from individual office files, and remote document collaboration were just a few of issues that were identified for improved planning.

December – 2008: Getting Paid for Services Rendered

So, you have done the work, entered your time, and have sent an invoice to your client. Now, how do you collect on the bill? Given this country’s financial crisis, law firm management must focus on implementing systems that will ultimately shorten the period from service delivery to service payment. This may translate to discounts for early payment, more aggressive bill collections procedures, charging interest and late fees on outstanding balances, and process billing.

Roundtable Highlights:

Bottom line: Structured discipline is the key to managing on-time accounts receivable.
The firm’s practice type many times dictates the timeliness of receiving payment for services rendered. For instance, litigation may be paid at the end of the year or when the case is settled; while transactional matters are billed and paid on a turnkey basis. The more complex the matter, the trend is more complex billing and payment schedules.
Sometimes, a simple invoice submission method can facilitate on-time payment, such as the submission of an invoice in a PDF format via email directed to the client and the accounting contact. Or, asking the client if they have an electronic invoicing system that will allow the firm to submit invoices in a client-formatted structure for rapid payment.
Another driver of timely payments is submitting internal time on a scheduled basis, and submitting invoices to the client in plenty of time to allow review of the invoice, prior to their check cutting date. This requires a disciplined effort on the firm’s behalf to collect timesheets by deadline. Some firms reinforce the importance of judicious timesheet submission by holding attorney compensation until timesheets are submitted.

Rafte & Company will be more than happy to assist you with your 2009 planning. From a quick question to helping you with your business planning retreats feel free to contact us at 713-993-9637 or drafte@rafte.com.

2-Jan-09 1:00 PM

What Every Lawyer Should Know About Data Governance, Compliance, and Collaboration

Shannon Hampton — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

By Dena Rafte, President and CEO, Rafte & Company

According to figures recently released by IBM, worldwide file, database, and email archive capacity will each skyrocket at a compound annual growth rate of up to 73 percent, altogether totaling nearly two trillion full filing cabinets of information (IBM Press Release, May 21, 2008).

If your organization is like most, the daily accumulation of data is a fact of doing business: matter-related data is strewn across the organization in outdated paper filing systems, duplicate emails, and multiple databases.

Security and Compliance Concerns

In the past, the need to retain data was driven by business need; but today, government regulation is just as likely to play a key role. For many organizations, concerns about compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) are driving new data governance initiatives. Among other regulatory requirements, SOX mandates that records be retained in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable format, requiring organizations to implement a robust data retention solution.

Of course, there are other drivers of data retention initiatives such as the “Model Corporate Record Retention Guidelines” of the Association of Corporate Counsel, which provides guidelines for establishing record retention programs and policies for matter-related documents normally handled by Corporate Counsel.

Corporate mergers and acquisitions, a global client-base, and a mobile workforce have also increased pressure on corporate legal departments to provide full visibility and control over matter-related content. Yet, the matter files in many organizations remain inaccessible remotely for collaborative purposes or are still paper-based.

Poor Data Quality is a Business, Legal, and Financial Risk

Lack of data, poor data quality, or incomplete records can carry legal, business, and financial risks when data required as part of a legal proceeding or regulatory requirement is missing. In one case involving the routine, scheduled deletion of email from a corporate database that occurred after a lawsuit was filed, the State District Court of New York ruled that even in the absence of bad faith, companies can receive court sanctions even if they are only following their normal data retention practices of deleting emails after a set period of time (MasterCard vs. Moulton, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York: June 22, 2004).

Beyond Compliance: Why Adopt a Data Governance Policy?

Besides addressing compliance requirements, there are many other reasons to adopt a rational data governance policy. For corporate legal counsel, it’s critically important to be able to share matter-related information securely between subsidiaries, geographically-dispersed workforces, partners, and affiliates.

Unfortunately, critical matter-related information is often tucked away in data silos across email inboxes/folders, multiple offices, subsidiaries, and regions. Having a central data repository enhances the ability to share matter-related information securely, while improving the organization’s knowledge management capabilities. The result is better consistency and confidence in decision-making.

Matter Centricity and Data Made Available Anytime, Anywhere

Increasingly, the data that is required during the legal discovery process is electronic, not written. Yet, it is important that both paper records and electronic matter are available centrally on-demand—anytime, anywhere. That means data must be accessible from a courtroom, airport, or home office—as well as from the traditional desktop. No longer is the laptop satisfying remote access to matter-related data. The smart phone, PDA, or BlackBerry is now an essential component of the legal professional’s technology infrastructure. So, any data governance solution must take these mobile devices into account, not just the desktop and laptop.

The objective of data governance for many organizations is to mitigate the risks associated with regulatory requirements and to implement business policies that provide an auditable framework—without disrupting the way the company does business. In today’s regulatory environment, a rational data governance policy is essential to ensure consistency, confidence, and compliance.

Lifecycle Management of Matter-Centric Data

To effectively manage matter-related content, data governance policies and processes must encompass the lifecycle of the entire project or matter, including both hard copy and electronic files and records. In addition, data archival and retrieval systems must provide multiple, convenient ways to file and profile email messages into the electronic matter file—with flexibility to meet the way that the business operates, and with full access to data through intranets and extranets.

The best data archival systems use metadata and heuristic analysis of message or document content to classify and categorize data into matter folders so that matter-related data is available in context. Without metadata capture features as part of an archival system capabilities, the organization is at risk for spoliation due to lost or modified metadata and content.

Work Style and Culture Are Important Considerations

The key to the success of any data governance policy is full and effective user adoption. During the initial discovery process, it is important to involve those who will be impacted by new data governance policies so that they are participants in the process, not simply bystanders reacting to new policies and processes as they are rolled out.

Understanding roles, responsibilities, work styles, and organizational culture is a critical part of successful data governance initiatives and effective case management. Just as important is ensuring that data governance policies and processes reflect the way the organization actually does business.

Good Data Governance: Using the Right People, Processes, and Technology

Many organizations believe they have handled the need for matter-on-demand with a document management system. In reality, there is far more integration required between people, processes, and technology to put an effective data governance system in place and do an adequate job of connecting the paper world with the electronic world.

Three Common Pitfalls You Should Avoid:

Don’t rely on file and database backups as a substitute for a reliable data governance solution. Backup copies are not in a format that can be queried. Furthermore, data integrity problems can result if the backup copy contains data that is in your current operational database, but in a different state.
Don’t leave archive data in your operational database. Queries against the operational database can negatively affect the performance of critical business applications.
Don’t rely on electronic imaging systems alone as the answer to data archiving and regulatory compliance. Many such systems promise electronic document management (mainly for filing purposes), but fail to provide an enterprise-wide solution that meets regulatory requirements.

Putting the Process Together

In successful data governance initiatives, the leader of the initiative is an executive level sponsor. The team includes project management, line-of-business managers, and data stewards who take an active role in data strategy development and delivery. Within that framework, critical data elements are identified and ownership, stewardship, and management of different kinds of information are assigned.

At Rafte and Company, we’ve simplified implementation of the data governance process into the following steps:

Once the value of proper data governance is understood and a commitment is made, the executive-level sponsor assigns a project team to examine data governance objectives and goals, review the range of possible solutions, recommend an approach and guide implementation.
In the due diligence phase, the project team meets with each line-of-business manager and data steward to understand how they work and examine the system used to organize physical files.
Working with a legal technology consultant, a concept is developed, demonstrated, and honed as necessary.
Once finalized, the team is trained in the non-disruptive activities that take place in the background—such as indexing, identifying, grabbing, and storing data in matter-related folders, and, if necessary, further refinement of the concept is completed.
With a successful implementation behind them, the data governance policy is complete. New initiatives are not deployed without considering their impact on existing databases and day-to-day business operations.

Conclusion: Better Compliance, Collaboration, and Security

While regulatory compliance may be a primary concern, it is not the only benefit that organizations can realize from implementing a data governance policy, processes, and technology. Data governance can dramatically improve the consistency and confidence of decision-making, data security, regulatory compliance, and the ability to share secure, reliable information throughout the organization.

By consolidating all of the matter-related content into one unified, secure, searchable location, the compliance needs of the organization can be met, while enhancing the ability to fully collaborate around matter-centric data across geographically dispersed locations—anywhere, anytime.

In the final analysis, the hallmark of a successful data governance solution is effective collaboration around matter-related information in all of its forms. Once the right technology, people, and processes are brought together, the true collaborative potential of matter on-demand can be unleashed.

15-Aug-08 10:00 AM

Legal Technology News Features Rafte Guidance on Virtualization

Steve Bondy — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:00:00 GMT

The article, "Is Your Law Firm Ready for Virtual Servers?" written by Rafte & Company Founder Dena Rafte is featured by Law.com's Legal Technology News. The article suggests that virtualization may be the way to go for small to midsized firms.

Rafte says the benefits of virtualization are clear: instead of servers running at 10 percent or less capacity at certain points in the day, virtual servers can share hardware resources -- raising your average usage rate and lowering hardware and support costs. What else?

Lower hardware investments. Instead of purchasing multiple servers, purchase a single, dual-core high-performance computing server and load the host operating system and virtual server software to create the virtual server environment.
Improved security. Server virtualization lets you isolate each server, so if a server is compromised by a virus, Trojan or other malevolent program, the other servers are isolated, protecting the data that resides on those servers. This gives you the security benefits of separate servers, with reduced hardware cost.
Easier restoration through greater consistency. Restoring a virtual server is easier than restoring a server running on dedicated hardware. The virtual server software hides the physical hardware from the virtual servers, which means the hardware platform is always consistent.
Reduced time to recovery. Server virtualization can significantly reduce the time it takes to access a remote disaster recovery site, especially if the virtual servers are pre-staged. Assuming you perform a virtual server image backup weekly to a remote disaster recovery site, and run a differential backup during the week, all you need to do is run a restore of the latest differential backup to make a "warm" site "hot."

Click here to read the story.

At Rafte & Company, we see this trend becoming more prevalent among small and medium-sized law firms, but this technology is not for every firm. Decision makers need to do their homework before switching to virtualized servers. If virtualization is mishandled, the approach can actually increase IT management complexity and increase the impact of failure. One failed physical server could take a number of hosted virtual servers down with it, crippling your firm’s ability to operate for a period of time.

Another caution is that the various virtualization-focused products and strategies may not seamlessly integrate. Doing so can lead to overlap and waste.

Of course, not every law firm has the technical expertise or internal resources to manage and operate its increasingly complex and expanding legal IT infrastructure – let alone capitalize on emerging technologies such as virtualization. That’s why managing partners are turning to Rafte & Company's Legal Technology Solutions for selective and integrated IT infrastructure, operations, and management sourcing and services. Rafte & Company's Legal Technology Solutions keep technology costs low, enables users to access an expert IT team with outstanding user support, and eliminates the hassles of hiring, training and retaining a qualified technology staff.

Through Rafte & Company’s Legal Technology Solutions, our team of experts can help your firm assess whether virtualization is a viable option for you.

For more information on Rafte & Company's Legal Technology Solutions, please call toll-free (800) 396-9390 or e-mail us to request at info@rafte.com.

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15-May-08 1:00 PM

Latest Legal Technology Survey Suggests Law Firms Still Resist Technology Tools

Dena Rafte — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:00:00 GMT

ALM Research in partnership with Cogent Research has released the 2007 Legal Technology Market Assessment Survey. The report identifies the factors that drive technology purchases and preferences, differentiate products and brands, and define trends in law firm technology budgets. Nearly 1,400 attorneys responded to the survey, which broke down perceptions in the following five areas:

Case/practice management;
Document management;
E-discovery;
Client relationships management/client development; and
Online research.

The new ALM/Cogent poll, which was split evenly between large and small firms (41 percent large law firms, 38 percent small firms, 14 percent midsize firms and six percent in-house counsel), confirms what we’ve seen in other recent legal technology surveys: that significant resistance to technology remains and that a large number of practicing lawyers in America are still practicing and trying to manage the business of their firms without the benefit of technology tools.

Among the survey findings:

52 percent of the attorneys have access to case management software;
32 percent have access to document management tools;
12 percent have access to electronic data discovery products;
9 percent have access to customer relationship management software.

Although the largest U.S. law firms have average annual technology operating budget approximately $17,000 per lawyer for technology investments, the survey found that market penetration by most legal software products is still relatively moderate,

In a news release announcing the survey results, Ellen Siegel, vice president of licensing and business development at ALM had this to say:

"The survey yielded eye-opening results, which have significant implications for technology vendors striving to maintain or improve their positions in the legal market. Results specific to individual products are set out in separate sections and will be of great interest to lawyers and other law technology purchasers seeking guidance and feedback from their peers."

The survey covers performance comparison of case management systems, purchase "drivers" and criteria, and it offers detailed analysis of top vendors, exploring such perceptions as user loyalty, and what would happen to the marketplace if the product was not offered.

An executive summary of study findings is available at www.almresearchonline.com.

18-Oct-07 11:00 AM

Law Firm Business and Technology Needs Converge at ILTA '07

Dena Rafte — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:00:00 GMT

For a few days in August, Orlando was the epicenter of legal technology, playing host to the 2007 International Legal Technology Association’s (ILTA) conference. Rafte & Company was well represented. I was honored to speak on two panels on business strategy while others in the firm participated in the various professional development sessions.

The amount of information at ILTA ’07 was staggering, but we’ll do our best to offer a synopsis and expand on some of these issues in subsequent articles.

Overall, I found it refreshing because the focus of the discussion was on strategic issues related to the success of the law firm. We’ve come a long way far the days when the responsibility of a law firm’s information technology (IT) personnel was primarily break/fix and making sure that the system stays up.

I heard a lot of creative thoughts about what firms are doing to better differentiate themselves, what they could do to make it easier for their clients to do business with them and what they could do to drive efficiencies in order to deliver their work products faster and cheaper. I left with the clear impression that legal IT is not what it used to be.

That said, the general buzz in most of the sessions wasn’t particularly surprising, but it was enlightening in terms of where the technology brain trusts of America’s law firm are focused. Many of those in attendance described similar interests: how best to manage the tremendous volume of data, the obstacles related to user education and training, and leveraging IT investments to accelerate firm growth.

Larger Law Firms Modeling IT on Fortune 500

Rafte & Company works primarily with smaller and mid-size law firms, a number of which are aggressively investing in technologies that can improve the way their work. The idea is to leave antiquated business processes behind and implement systems that enable the firm to operate at a higher level. The chatter from the larger firms at ILTA ’07 made clear that we are on the right track. America’s large law firms are modeling their operations and business processes on the practices, methodologies and structures commonly associated with Fortune 500 companies.

Unlike many smaller and mid-size firms that may not see IT as a business leveraging tool, technology is woven into the fabric of America’s larger firms. One of the panels in which I participated was, “Getting a Seat at the Table,” which discussed what a firm’s IT leadership needs to do to be seen as a strategic player. The mere fact that the firms are having that discussion points to the chasm that exists between practice group leadership and the use of innovative technologies to better serve the client base. But it also points to a desire among the smaller firms to cross the chasm, which leads us to our next point.

Smaller Firms Catching Up

One of the major takeaways from ILTA ’07 was that smaller firms are beginning to close the gap with larger firms in terms of integrating various technology tools into the fabric of their operations to increase productivity, improve efficiencies and enhance profitability. In fact, an ILTA survey conducted earlier in the summer indicated that smaller firms are ramping up the pace of their technology investments just as larger firms are beginning to ease off their technology spending.

We presume other smaller firms share the desire of our clients to increasingly integrate technologies into their business processes in order to realize the advantages the larger firms have enjoyed for much of the past decade.

Automation Presents Opportunities

Automating certain functions that firms would normally bill for on an hourly basis is becoming an emphasis of some of the more sophisticated firms. Firms that are doing this successfully may be charging less, but they are creating an annuity stream of revenue with no or very low associated costs to the firm. One example is a firm that used to provide training programs on various labor law topics for their clients. By repackaging the information and offering the classes online, the firm makes delivery of the information more convenient and cost effective for their clients while significantly reducing costs to the firm.

This creative thinking is helping innovative firms repurpose their core asset – their knowledge – to establish new lines of products and services that clients are excited about. They strengthen their client relationships while boosting profits. What could be better?

Virtualization Reduces Costs

In years past, servers proliferated at an astounding rate. Every new IT project seems to require new hardware. Of course, this also means more hardware support issues, more real estate consumed, and higher data center costs for electricity and cooling. Many firms have instead chosen to adopt virtualization, leveraging one host to run multiple servers. This trend has become more prevalent, and is enabling the deployment of new IT initiatives at a lower cost and, in some cases, in an accelerated timeline. It also has positive implications for disaster recovery and high availability.

This has been an exciting development in technology, and one we expect to continue to develop in the future, as virtualization pushes out from the data center and begins to migrate to the desktop.

Interwoven Addresses Training Dilemma

As usual, the companies that make the various software and hardware solutions used by law firms were out in force. The Rafte team paid particular attention to what Interwoven was saying, recognizing the leading role they play in helping law firms improve their business processes. In the midst of all the hoopla about new products, they had some wisdom to share regarding one of the key obstacles that stands in the way of successful technology roll-outs: getting attorneys trained. Recognizing that it’s not realistic to expect most attorneys to go to the classroom willingly – let along pay attention if you get them there – Interwoven is moving more of their training online so attorneys can ramp up whenever and wherever is convenient.

Interwoven and others also had a lot to say about litigation preparedness. There is an overwhelming amount of work being done to design and deploy tools intended to help law firms and their clients proactively manage the risks associated with being sued.

There is a lot more that we would like to share and we will do that in upcoming articles here on the site. Please make it a point to check for updates, or subscribe to our RSS feed so you are alerted when an update is posted.

Of course, we also welcome comments and feedback below.

1-Oct-07 6:00 PM

ILTA '07 - Getting a Seat at the Table

Dan Keeney — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Rafte & Company President Dena Rafte participated as a panelist in the session, "Getting a Seat at the Table," during ILTA ’07, the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association. With the permission of ILTA and the event organizers, we have posted the audio from the discussion below.

“Getting a Seat at the Table” explored how some technologists have become key strategic thinkers in order to meet their firm's measurable business goals. Recognizing that technology is central to law firm operations, Rafte and other panelists will explore how legal technologists can become key strategists for their firms and discuss their successes as well as steer participants away from potential pitfalls.

“These are important conversations and I was honored to be selected to participate in ILTA ’07,” said Rafte, who established Rafte & Company nearly a quarter century ago. Today Rafte & Company is a leading provider of business strategy and technology solutions for law firms. “Making the most of technology investments to boost firm profitablity and streamline processes is instrumental in creating a client-focused firm.”

Dena Rafte is a frequent presenter on the importance of aligning technology investments with business strategy to improve law firm operational efficiencies and profitability.

For your convenience, we have divided the hour-long session into six parts, each of which is approximately 10 minutes long. We welcome your feedback, so feel free to post your comments below. Also, click here to listen to the session, "Understanding the Lawyer-client Relationship," in which Dena also participated.

Getting a Seat at the Table Part 1

Getting a Seat at the Table Part 2

Getting a Seat at the Table Part 3

Getting a Seat at the Table Part 4

Getting a Seat at the Table Part 5

Getting a Seat at the Table Part 6

6-Sep-07 6:00 PM

ILTA '07 - Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship

Dan Keeney — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 21:00:00 GMT

Rafte & Company President Dena Rafte participated as a panelist in a terrific session entitled, "Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship" during ILTA ’07, the annual conference of the International Legal Technology Association.

This was an important conversation and Dena, who established Rafte & Company 24 years ago, said she was honored to be selected to participate. She says that creating a client-focused firm is essential for law firm success as more firms implement strategic technologies into their business processes.

The ILTA session, “Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship,” delved into how today’s global business environment is creating immense pressures on the lawyer-client relationship. Panelists discussed how emerging practices such as RFPs, risk-sharing agreements and flat-fee pricing are changing the legal environment and will look at the increasing importance of technology in helping law firms succeed. The session also explored how technologists can shape their strategies to help their firms compete in today’s every expanding and evolving global legal marketplace.

We are happy to be able to share the audio from this session with the permission of ILTA and the event organizers. Click below to download parts 1 through 6, each of which is approximately 10 minutes long. Also, click here to listen to the session, "Getting a Seat at the Table," in which Dena also participated.

Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship Part 1

Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship Part 2

Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship Part 3

Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship Part 4

Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship Part 5

Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship Part 6

6-Sep-07 4:00 PM

The Role of the Legal Administrator in Creating a Client-Focused Firm

Dena Rafte — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 15:00:00 GMT

The following article, written by Rafte & Company President Dena Rafte, was published in the July/August issues of Legal Management under the title, "Open and Accessible, The Legal Administrator's Role in Creating a Client-Focused Firm." Download a PDF of the article here.

A legal administrator can play a central role in helping ensure the success of technology initiatives that can keep their firm competitive. Without the understanding, support and active involvement of a strong legal administrator in helping drive change, initiatives designed to make it easy for clients to do business with the firm frequently fail to live up to their potential.

This is critically important today because forward-looking firms have realized that they need to constantly change and innovate in order to satisfy rapidly evolving client demands. Leading firms have made it their business to identify and leverage new ways of working. It’s one way they are differentiating themselves and attracting clients.

Client expectations are at the heart of what’s happening. Corporations are implementing sophisticated technologies to squeeze more value and efficiency out of the global supply chain. To the dismay of many in the legal community, these companies are increasingly treating legal services as just another commodity. As such, they are expecting their law firms to deliver more for less while demanding their firms make it easier to do business with them.

In this era of rapid response and interactivity, a law firm’s survival depends on adopting a more open and accessible approach to client relations.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Why?

First, most firms still want to do what their peer firms are doing. In most cases, this means that work processes revolve around the whims of the individual attorney.
Second, law firms tend to have great difficulty getting people to work differently due to a perceived conflict between improved efficiency and billable hours.
Third, change typically happens in most organizations when the perceived level of pain gets uncomfortable. In the case of many law firms, until the impact is clearly financial, change is very slow in coming

Leading firms are overcoming these obstacles with the help of their legal administrator. They are moving beyond the attorney-focused mindset that places great value on the individual to the detriment of the team, instituting strict standards for how things get done. In so doing, they are embracing a client-focused mentality that insists on mobilizing all the available resources of the firm to deliver the greatest value to the client.

The first step is to understand the importance of establishing standards.

Standardizing Firm Processes

The need to manage matters and share knowledge are prompting law firms to consider how they can do a better job of efficiently managing critical content. At many firms, the focus is on giving the individual attorneys what they need to practice and stay productive. This can create horrendous inefficiencies with information tucked away in private Outlook folders or other inaccessible data repositories.

For instance, at one firm, the Word Processing staff showed me a giant loose leaf notebook with instructions for how each individual attorney preferred his or her documents. Every attorney had a customized profile. One attorney liked to have indents and a certain font. Another attorney preferred margins a bit wider. As a result of these highly individualized work processes, it was very difficult for work to be shared among the administrative staff.

Establishing standards that everyone has to follow has become increasingly important with the exponential growth of data with the firm. These factors, coupled with client and staff expectations of availability and response time, are forcing law firms to look at how information is shared and how they can provide clients with greater access and a consistent online user experience.

For most firms, there were few standards for electronic data management and even fewer viable user options for electronic data storage. Information that had previously been centralized in the physical folder for all to access was now being partially replicated into individually owned data stores.

What to do? Ultimately, the name of the game is making it easier for clients to do business with your firm. Therefore, it is essential to have a shared database in order to give all users a place to store the firm’s electronic data in a manner that is consistent and predictable. The firm has to provide a means to replicate the structure of the physical files and provide seamless access to the matter folders for all related documents, e-mail correspondence and attachments, financial reports and any scanned content or images.

The idea is to create an environment that takes the focus off of the individual attorney and puts it squarely on the client. All firm-related information is in the case file. Clearly this is not a unique idea in the paper world, but a very challenging one in the electronic environment. The result is to make information securely accessible to internal and external users on an anytime/anyplace basis.

The Buck Stops with the Administrator

While the need for top down support for such a change is essential, the job of building understanding and consensus among attorneys and staff members at all levels typically falls on the shoulders of the legal administrator.

The best legal administrators take this responsibility and run with it, recognizing that a fundamental change is necessary in order for the firm begin to maximize productivity and efficiencies to benefit both the clients and the firm. They actively look for opportunities to improve efficiencies, often finding resistance from attorneys and staff who have deeply entrenched work processes. In firms where legal administrators are empowered to meet resistance head on, organizational change is more likely to succeed.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen that legal administrators are often held accountable for the successful implementation of change without being granted the power to actually insist on compliance.

Moreover, creating an environment that encourages innovation and facilitates collaboration is just the start. The legal administrator also must be a strong advocate for paying close attention to the needs and expectations of every firm’s three key stakeholder groups: the clients, the attorneys and the business of the firm itself. Clients expect a superior work product delivered very quickly at a low cost. The firm’s attorneys expect to have the opportunity to do great work and live a desirable lifestyle. The firm itself expects to retain and strengthen current relationships, establish new relationships and remain profitable.

The key to achieving a balance among the interests of these groups is having a shared firm-wide perspective that the interests of the client must come first. The challenge for most law firms is that they attempt to implement this type of client focused change without first establishing the necessary infrastructure – the standards, workflow and procedures – for the organization to work as a team to serve the client.

What Clients Want

Clients don’t want the status quo. A study from BTI Consulting Group revealed an unprecedented drop in client satisfaction with law firms with just 30.7 percent of large and Fortune 1000 companies recommending their primary law firms. They no longer want an advisor who keeps a safe distance and offers off-the-shelf advice. They want someone with skin in the game and expect their law firm to be a business partner who truly understands their current and future challenges.

Clients expect their law firm to deliver maximum value. They are being forced to improve efficiencies and they want their service providers to do the same. They increasingly value flexible billing arrangements and creative solutions that make it possible to control costs.

Clients are increasingly doing business around the clock and want a law firm that offers flexibility and accessibility. They want to quickly and easily be able to access their files and documents at any time from wherever they happen to be in the world.

And clients expect it to be easy to do business with their law firm. They don’t need added complications, they want solutions. So the fact that the burden of organizing documents typically falls on them – in the form of voluminous e-mails and attachments – is an aggravation they would rather avoid.

What Attorneys Want

Attorneys expect the opportunity to create a desirable lifestyle. They want to dictate more of the terms of their employment – to free them from the billable hour ball and chain. Studies have found that this desire is not unique to Generation X. Mid-career women and partners nearing retirement also are attracted to work environments with greater flexibility.

Attorneys want simple and dependable remote access to the firm’s information so they can be productive wherever they are. They want to be able to collaborate with the firm’s staff and with their clients. Increasingly, they expect immediacy.

Additionally, many younger attorneys expect their employer to help them build their resume. This mindset is unfamiliar to their Boomer bosses who continue to structure compensation and advancement with an eye toward an associate’s long-term potential within the firm.

What the Firm Wants

The firm is expecting business development, talented attorneys and continued profitability. Reputation is key.

It is no secret that most firms shower their greatest rewards on those who bring in the most business. But many firms aren’t seeing the writing on the wall. A confluence of market dynamics is changing the business development process to devalue relationships and make procurement of legal services more objective and cost-based. If traditional business development was like a courtship, today’s approach that often requires firms to respond to a request for proposal is like an arranged marriage.

The way firms operate needs to change in order for them to remain competitive.

For example, I worked with a firm a few years ago in which the leadership was concerned that they were not attracting the type of talent they wanted. Unfortunately, their “solution” was simply to raise salaries. The firm didn’t consider changing the business development process to involve more attorneys or consider offering additional support to enable more attorneys to be successful in winning business. Nor did they provide additional training. And from a technology standpoint, they had not considered deploying a mobile device infrastructure, allowing for easier communication while away from the office.

They missed a great opportunity because the leadership of the firm had not been paying attention. To attract and retain talented attorneys, firms need to provide access to knowledge. They need the technology infrastructure that will help them to relate to their peers in the client community. This will be particularly important as their peers come into power 10 years from now.

Migration to a Client Centric Environment

Faced with billing rate pressure and rising costs, the law firms that stand out must continually identify and capitalize on ways to deliver more value to clients more efficiently.

The name of the game is changing the firm’s delivery system. Successful businesses every few years have to recreate themselves. Even if they are great at what they do, they must change to accommodate the client’s changing lifestyle and expectations. Here’s how to create client centric work processes:

Listen to your client – try and anticipate their future needs
Consider both your current automated and non-automated work flow processes
Create standards for the firm/practice/work group not the individual.
Create centralized electronic data repositories for case information
Increase staff leverage by providing training at all staff levels in support of these new processes
Create a collaborative environment by providing secure access to case data inside and outside the firm
Look for opportunities to refine the process in support of the client, the attorney and the firm.

Conclusion

Legal administrators who promote a shared firm-wide perspective, create an environment that facilitates collaboration and keeps the focus on the interests and needs of the firm’s clients tend to have a major positive impact on assuring their firm has the opportunity to advance in today’s increasingly competitive business landscape.

On the flip side, legal administrators who do not proactively look for opportunities or step forward as leaders risk seeing their firms fall out of favor. It can happen so gradually and over such a long period of time that the firm leaders don’t realize what’s happening until it is too late. Clients become disenchanted and associates grow frustrated, dropping off one by one.

With clients demanding that all their partners – including their law firms – do what they do better, faster and cheaper – it is essential to proactively take a 360-degree view of the firm and its work processes in order to capitalize on opportunities that can help differentiate the firm.

Dena Rafte is president of Rafte & Company (www.rafte.com), a strategic technology systems integrator and business solutions provider for law firms. Call 800.396.9390.

7-Aug-07 10:00 AM

Major Shifts in Law Firm and Professional Services Companies Drive Need to Address Their Time and Billing Systems

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT

HOUSTON, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Rafte & Company, a leading provider of business and technology consulting services for law firms and other professional services firms, is seeing major shifts in doing business, including: alternative billing practices, corporate-client demands for tighter cost report and controls and distributed or remote team collaboration. These shifts are driving the need to readdress if a firm's current time and billing system is meeting their needs. We have been working with law firms and professional services companies for more than 25 years, and I would have to say that our clients are currently experiencing the most significant shift in business practices over the last two decades. Bottom line, corporate-clients are under pressure to control costs, especially as we navigate this economic downturn, said Dena Rafte, president and CEO of Rafte & Company. We are helping our clients take a deep breath and help them pragmatically align a time and billing system...

Rafte & Company Helps Law Firms Move and Transition to Meet Market Needs

noemail@rafte.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:00:00 GMT

HOUSTON Aug. 19, 2009 – For more than 25 years, Rafte & Company has helped law firms of all sizes and practice areas grow and transition their firms to meet market requirements. The new Legal Transition Practice formalizes Rafte & Company’s commitment to support law firms with each transitional phase of a legal practice, including:

Strategic retreats to support mergers, acquisitions, divestures or spinoffs to proactively approach: culture integration, matter management, alignment of business process, and client succession planning
Business scalability to support growth or downsizing in a market
Succession planning
IT equipment inventory, break-fix, replacement and centralized support planning
Identification, review, and recommendations of fit-for-need technology solutions
Data integration and protection
Contact relationship management (CRM) solutions for merging organization
Website development
Disconnect, pack, move and setup a firm’s IT infrastructure floor-to-floor, building-to-building, city-to-city, and state-to-state

“Today’s economic climate has created an influx of change for many law firms. Managing partners and IT directors need a vendor-neutral advisor to help them navigate through their firm’s changes in a pragmatic, cost-effective manner. We are very excited about offering our knowledge and expertise as a formal practice,” said Rafte & Company President and CEO, Dena Rafte.

About Rafte & Company

Established in 1983 with headquarters in Houston, Texas; Rafte & Company specializes in designing, implementing and managing strategic business and technology consulting solutions, remote collaboration systems, document management software solutions, legal software support, IT design and management services. To inquire about Rafte & Company’s Legal Transition Practice, please call toll-free at (800) 396-9390 or contact Rafte & Company through their website at www.rafte.com/contact.

Rafte & Company to Examine Lessons from Hurricane Ike at Legal Technology Roundtable

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

HOUSTON, October 14, 2008 – The legal technology experts who keep Houston law firms and corporate legal departments operating smoothly will come together this week to discuss what they learned from Hurricane Ike and its aftermath. Rafte & Company, a leading provider of strategic technology solutions for law firms, corporate legal departments and professional services firms, is sponsoring, Lessons Learned: Preparing for and Recovering from a Hurricane, on Thursday, October 16th. Many law firms and legal departments saw their operations disrupted to varying degrees by Hurricane Ike. The storm caused wind and water damage to office buildings downtown and elsewhere, as well as lengthy power outages. The lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 led many law firms and corporate legal departments to develop business continuity plans that were invaluable during Hurricane Ike, said Dena Rafte, president and chief executive officer of Rafte & Company. Ike presented its own unique...

The Latest from Rafte & Company

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:28:04 GMT

Recent News: Rafte & Company Partners with AppRiver to Provide Hosted Exchange Email Messaging and Security Solutions HOUSTON, TX (March 2, 2010) – Rafte & Company, a leading provider of business and technology consulting services for law firms and other professional services firms today announced that they have partnered with AppRiver to provide Hosted Microsoft Exchange server solutions for small and mid-market organizations. Rafte & Company’s SecureTide™ email spam and virus protection service surrounds the Hosted Exchange environment, providing comprehensive protection to meet governance, risk and compliance regulations when managing e-mail messaging. “Rafte & Company’s law firm and professional services client base is faced with not only protecting their own e-mail content, but are often trusted with the information of their clients. These firms must address email management with a sound email security system, but resources are often too...

Partners

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:37 GMT

Rafte & Company values its partners and alliances. We strive to create a full spectrum of services for our clients and align ourselves with key technology and solutions providers that add value to the services we provide to our clients.

Helping You Move or Transition Your Firm

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:08 GMT

For the past 25 years, Rafte & Company has supported law firms and professional services with every imaginable transitional change:

Moving organizations floor-to-floor, building-to-building, city-to-city, or
state-to-state
Mergers, acquisitions, divestures, spinoffs
Downsizing
Growth
Succession

No matter what stage your organization is in today, Rafte & Company can facilitate that change smoothly:

Strategy Retreats:

Culture integration
Alignment of business processes
Business and client succession planning
Business continuity planning
Identification, review, and recommendation of fit-for-need technology

Data Integration and Protection:

Data integration strategy
Contact Relationship Management (CRM) Solutions for merging organizations

IT Environment:

Disconnect, pack, move, and setup your IT equipment (computers, servers, cables)
IT equipment inventory
IT equipment integration suggestions (especially useful in a merger, acquisition, or divesture)
IT strategy to support the merger of two different company cultures and business practices
IT equipment replacement strategy
Single point-of-contact for multi-vendor IT support contracts

Home Page Address

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:40:26 GMT

We've moved:

1001 McKinney, Suite 1445 Houston, TX 77002
(713) 993-9637

Same Great Company. New Suite.

Financial Insight

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:58:38 GMT

Law firms and professional service firms often suffer from the same issues surrounding their financial systems… the information is being collected and managed but is typically not available to the people that need it. The management of the firm needs access to critical data on the growth of the firm, the financial performance drivers associated with clients, and the significant points in its operations where additional profit margin is gained or lost.

... accessing financial information

Rafte & Company can assist your firm management team with customizing reports and accessing information without disrupting the financial operations of the firm.

Click here for the current market trends in time and billing systems.

Rafte & Company Helping You Select the Right Time and Billing System

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:49:39 GMT

For law firms and professional services organizations, accounting for all billable time is directly related to your profitability and financial health of your organization. But, how do you choose the best fit-for-need time and billing system? There are so many systems available.

For more than 25 years, Rafte & Company has been helping law firms and professional services organizations align their business processes, practice areas and billing practices with a time and billing system that not only meets their immediate accounting requirements; but allows the professionals of the organization to practice their craft and not focus on mundane accounting tasks.

At times, we may recommend a new time and billing system – but, you would be surprised to learn that in most situations we fine-tune the system that is already in place.

In order to determine if you are using the right time and billing system, or if you are using it properly, we follow a proven methodology to address your time and billing challenges:

Partner's Breakfast Roundtable Nov 2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:15:42 GMT

Leading Your Organization through Change

"I think we're on the cusp of change. If firms don't change, they're not going to like what results in the end because there are forces in play that are driving change, and you can miss the train, you can get on the train, or you can get hit by the train, but the train is moving."

- Jim Carr, General Counsel

FMC Technologies

Accepting that change is upon us, what are the top initiatives for your firm, and how will you move them forward?

By Invitation Only - Click here to register.

Facilitated by: Robert Loughran, Partner
Foster Quan, LLP

Thursday, Nov 5, 2009
7:00 A.M. – 9:00 A.M.

Magnolia Hotel
The Library
1100 Texas Avenue
Houston, Texas 77002

Library - Resource Center

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:39:05 GMT

Welcome to the Rafte & Company Library Resource Center. Please browse around and let us know if you have any questions. Case Studies White Papers Published Articles Product Data Sheets Case Studies · Recovering your IT Network in a Disaster, June 2007, Porter & Hedges · Outsourcing your IT, May 2007, a Mid-Sized Houston Based Law Firm · Managing a Training Program, March 2007, Houston Zoo · Hays Davis, Septemeber 2007 · Winthrop & Weinstine Case Study – Stops Email Overload with Interwoven, May 2006 White Papers Top of Page · Data Governance, Compliance & Collaboration - Can it be done?, August 2008, by Dena Rafte · A...

IS Educate

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:57:37 GMT

Rafte & Company has professional trainers that can complement your staff and increase the overall effectiveness of your information technology through customized or standardized classroom, workshop, or one-on-one offerings.

Rafte & Company can provide your company with an overview of training requirements to maximize the effectiveness of your technology and application tools. In addition to providing the training plan, Rafte & Company focuses on providing a learning program oriented toward improving the knowledge and capability of the end user.

Training classes include but are not limited to Microsoft Office, graphics and pdf applications, Interwoven's iManage desktop client, Workshare Deltaview and Professional, and many more.

Click to learn more about our IS Complete™ service package, Our Methodologies, Service Framework and Technology Evolution perspectives.

Rafte & Company's training services freature in BtoB. Read the article here.

Rafte Services

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:55:43 GMT

Rafte & Company's full suite of services are designed to compliment your internal processes with high level professional services focused on enabling the growth and success of your firm.

Rafte & Company believes that high impact service offerings are based on strong, proven methodologies and are developed through years of experience. Our service offerings fit together in a full suite of services, as diagramed in the illustration above.

Learn more about Rafte Services, Our Methodologies, IS Complete™ service package, and Technology Evolution perspectives.

Upgrading to Word 2003

noemail@rafte.com — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 21:00:00 GMT

Objectives:

We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 14-Dec-06 3:00 PM
Expiration Date: 14-Feb-07 3:00 PM

Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

Upgrading to Word 2003

noemail@rafte.com — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 18:00:00 GMT

Objectives:

We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 7-Dec-06 12:00 PM
Expiration Date: 7-Feb-07 12:00 PM

Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

Gainer Donnelly & Desroches QuickBooks

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 20:00:00 GMT

Objectives: We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 14-Nov-06 2:00 PM
Expiration Date: 12-Jan-07 2:00 PM
Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

Gainer Donnelly & Desroches - Beginning/Intermediate Word

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 18:00:00 GMT

Objectives:

We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 31-Oct-06 1:00 PM
Expiration Date: 29-Jan-07 1:00 PM
Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

Gainer Donnelly Excel Beg-Inter

noemail@rafte.com — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:00:00 GMT

Objectives:

We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 25-Oct-06 9:00 AM
Expiration Date: 20-Dec-07 5:00 AM

Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

Diamond McCarthy - Upgrading to Office 2003

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:00:00 GMT

Objectives: We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 24-Oct-06 5:00 PM
Expiration Date: 10-Dec-06 5:00 PM
Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

Porter & Hedges - Upgrading to Word 2003

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:00:00 GMT

Objectives: We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to continue to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 24-Oct-06 10:00 AM
Expiration Date: 24-Nov-06 5:00 PM

Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

If you have any questions about training or other class offerings please feel free to call or email Shannon at Rafte and Company: 713-993-9637 or shampton@rafte.com.

Microsoft Excel

noemail@rafte.com — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 14:00:00 GMT

Objectives: We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 17-Jul-06 9:00 AM
Expiration Date: 31-Aug-06 6:00 PM
Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback as they will be anonymous.

Excel Intermediate: Jan.24, 2006

noemail@rafte.com — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:00:00 GMT

Objectives:

We hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes in order to continue to provide superior client satisfaction.

Release Date: 25-Jan-06 8:00 AM
Expiration Date: 15-Mar-06 5:00 PM

Please select the most appropriate answer from your class experience. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

If you have any questions about training or other class offerings please feel free to call or email Kari at Rafte and Company: 713-993-9637 or krobidoux@rafte.com.

Excel Fundamentals

noemail@rafte.com — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:00:00 GMT

Objectives: In order to provide superior client satisfaction, we hope to gain honest comments and feedback on our training classes.

Release Date: 11-Oct-05 9:00 AM
Expiration Date: 30-Nov-05 11:00 PM
Please select the most appropriate answer from your experience in class. More than one answer is allowed on Question 6 only. Please feel free to be candid with your comments and feedback.

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The Top Five Compelling Reasons Your Law Firm or Corporate Legal Department Can Benefit from Using Microsoft Office 2007

Rafte & Company's Partners' Breakfast Roundtable 2008 Recap

What a Year - Rafte & Company's Partners' Breakfast Roundtable 2008 Recap

April – 2008: Retaining Women in the Legal Profession

July – 2008: The Billable Hour: Is the Era Coming to an End?

October – 2008: Client Succession – Planning for Tomorrow

October – 2008: [SPECIAL SESSION - LEGAL TECHNOLOGY ROUNDTABLE] Lessons Learned: Preparing and Recovering from a Hurricane

December – 2008: Getting Paid for Services Rendered

What Every Lawyer Should Know About Data Governance, Compliance, and Collaboration

Security and Compliance Concerns

Poor Data Quality is a Business, Legal, and Financial Risk

Beyond Compliance: Why Adopt a Data Governance Policy?

Matter Centricity and Data Made Available Anytime, Anywhere

Lifecycle Management of Matter-Centric Data

Work Style and Culture Are Important Considerations

Good Data Governance: Using the Right People, Processes, and Technology

Three Common Pitfalls You Should Avoid:

Putting the Process Together

Conclusion: Better Compliance, Collaboration, and Security

Legal Technology News Features Rafte Guidance on Virtualization

Latest Legal Technology Survey Suggests Law Firms Still Resist Technology Tools

Law Firm Business and Technology Needs Converge at ILTA '07

ILTA '07 - Getting a Seat at the Table

ILTA '07 - Understanding the Lawyer-Client Relationship

The Role of the Legal Administrator in Creating a Client-Focused Firm

Major Shifts in Law Firm and Professional Services Companies Drive Need to Address Their Time and Billing Systems

Rafte & Company Helps Law Firms Move and Transition to Meet Market Needs

Rafte & Company to Examine Lessons from Hurricane Ike at Legal Technology Roundtable

The Latest from Rafte & Company

Partners

Helping You Move or Transition Your Firm

**Home Page Address**

Financial Insight

... accessing financial information

Rafte & Company Helping You Select the Right Time and Billing System

Partner's Breakfast Roundtable Nov 2009

Leading Your Organization through Change

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Rafte & Company's training services freature in BtoB. Read the article here.

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Upgrading to Word 2003

Upgrading to Word 2003

Gainer Donnelly & Desroches QuickBooks

Gainer Donnelly & Desroches - Beginning/Intermediate Word

Gainer Donnelly Excel Beg-Inter

Diamond McCarthy - Upgrading to Office 2003

Porter & Hedges - Upgrading to Word 2003

Microsoft Excel

Excel Intermediate: Jan.24, 2006

Excel Fundamentals

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